Eph 5:5, Col 3:5 | JFB | STEP | 5. this ye know —The oldest manuscripts read, "Of this ye are sure knowing"; or as ALFORD , "This ye know being aware." covetous . . . idolater — ( ). The best reading may be translated, That is to say, literally, which is (in other words) an idolater. Paul himself had forsaken all for Christ ( ). Covetousness is worship of the creature instead of the Creator, the highest treason against the King of kings ( ). hath —The present implies the fixedness of the exclusion, grounded on the eternal verities of that kingdom [ALFORD ]. of Christ and of God —rather, as one Greek article is applied to both, "of Christ and God," implying their perfect oneness, which is consistent only with the doctrine that Christ is God (compare ).

Ephesians 5:5

5. this ye know—The oldest manuscripts read, "Of this ye are sure knowing"; or as ALFORD, "This ye know being aware."

covetous . . . idolater— (Col 3:5). The best reading may be translated, That is to say, literally, which is (in other words) an idolater. Paul himself had forsaken all for Christ (2Co 6:10; 11:27). Covetousness is worship of the creature instead of the Creator, the highest treason against the King of kings (1Sa 15:3; Mt 6:24; Php 3:19; 1Jo 2:15).

hath—The present implies the fixedness of the exclusion, grounded on the eternal verities of that kingdom [ALFORD].

of Christ and of God—rather, as one Greek article is applied to both, "of Christ and God," implying their perfect oneness, which is consistent only with the doctrine that Christ is God (compare 2Th 1:12; 1Ti 5:21; 6:13).

Colossians 3:5

5. Mortify—Greek, "make a corpse of"; "make dead"; "put to death."

therefore—(See on Col 3:3). Follow out to its necessary consequence the fact of your having once for all died with Christ spiritually at your regeneration, by daily "deadening your members," of which united "the body of the sins of the flesh" consists (compare Col 2:11). "The members" to be mortified are the fleshly instruments of lust, in so far as the members of the body are abused to such purposes. Habitually repress and do violence to corrupt desires of which the members are the instruments (compare Ro 6:19; 8:13; Ga 5:24, 25).

upon the earth—where they find their support [BENGEL] (Compare Col 3:2, "things on earth"). See Eph 5:3, 4.

inordinate affection—"lustful passion."

evil concupiscence—more general than the last [ALFORD], the disorder of the external senses; "lustful passion," lust within [BENGEL].

covetousness—marked off by the Greek article as forming a whole genus by itself, distinct from the genus containing the various species just enumerated. It implies a self-idolizing, grasping spirit; far worse than another Greek term translated "the love of money" (1Ti 6:10).

which is—that is, inasmuch as it is "idolatry." Compare Note, see on Eph 4:19, on its connection with sins of impurity. Self and mammon are deified in the heart instead of God (Mt 6:24; see on Eph 5:5).